Justice is a whole lot different in Arkham
by Screechy lady
Summary: What if Nightwing was in Arkham City instead of Batman? Oh, and the whole Young Justice team was watching his every move (courtesy of Robin) through the camera in his mask? Rated M because I'm paranoid, as well as dark themes, and descriptions of character costumes.
1. Into Arkham

"I'm so bored!" Impulse complained.

"Fine, then would you like to help me monitor the news?" asked Robin, annoyed with the speedster's antics.

"Aaaannnndddd, suddenly I'm not bored anymore. I totally forgot I have somewhere to be! I need to go to watch TV! Yeah, I have a special segment to watch on the news right about now!" The Flash's grandson said, checking his non-existent watch.

"Well, if you're going to watch the news, I'll come along and look for any major catastrophes that need our help." Robin said sliding his hand across the pop up screen at the Watchtower, causing it to disappear, seemingly oblivious to Impulse's desperation to avoid monitor duties. In the lieu of the Light's and Reach's defeat, the Team and the League had rounded up most of the world's super villians. Unfortunately, they'd had no such luck with the Light and were still showering the globe searching for the members. It frustrated Tim to no end, as he viewed himself as a budding detective, yet he couldn't find a hide nor hair of Savage and co. But back to the matter at hand, Tim knew all catastrophes would be radioed to the Watchtower long before any knees got to the studio, he just wanted to see Nightwing's speech. In the identity of Dick Grayson of course.

Impulse turned on one of the space station's many television sets to the news channel that happened to show Vicky Vale reporting from Arkham City. They were joined by Blue Beetle, Bumble Bee, Guardian, Wondergirl, Beast Boy, Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad, Tigress, and half hidden in the shadows, Batgirl. Believe it or not, the heroes each all really had nothing better to do.

"-Vale reporting live from Arkham City, the controversial super prison built right here in the heart of Gotham. In a few moments, Richard Grayson will be live on stage to explain his sudden interest in Gotham politics. The son of the infamous play boy millionaire, (Bruce Wayne)-"

"It's billionaire, Vicky. Millionaires were so last year." Dick cut her off as he walked by flashing her one of his million dollar smiles, as he made it to the podium, he was swarmed by reporters and paparazzi. Cameras flashed and a sea of voices was heard.

"Mr. Grayson-"

"-Grayson-"

"-can you explain-"

"Thank you, thank you, Gotham. Imprisoned behind these walls, gang leaders are fighting a bloody war in the middle of our once great city!" Cameras continued to flash. "Every inmate from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison has been relocated to this facility. How can this be safe for the people of Gotham?!" Police sirens were heard off in the distance and rapidly getting closer.

"Today I've started the campaign to close Arkham city and make Gotham safe again.-" Suddenly many stark white helicopters, cars and vans with the Arkham City insignia on them flooded the area. Many men decked in army boots, black pants, and black vullet proof vests over their black shirts, and black berets to top them off. Tear gas canisters burst from their ranks and many people doubled over wheezing or crying.

"Hands in the air Grayson!" shouted one of the many guards with his gun trained on him and Dick hastily complied. Another guard spoke into a walkie talkie, "We have Grayson, target secure." Before bringing the butt of his gun down on the subject of his latest sentence's head.

The audience in the Watchtower sat numbly in shock. The team members who knew Nightwing's secret identity, (the Team's senior members plus Batgirl and Robin) all looked away in sympathy when their friend and leader got hit in the head.

Impulse got on his knees looked to the ceiling and screamed, "Why! I thought we were going to have another crash, crime free, day! Is that really to much to ask!"

"Crime never sleeps, hermanõ." replied Blue Beetle. "Say, what's wrong with Robin? Isn't he supposed to be assigning a team to help that Grayson kid?" he said referring to Tim sprinting from the room, to the monitor room.

Tim silently thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't shut down the computer, only put it in sleep mode.

"This is Robin to Nightwing, come in Nightwing." he drilled out, as he opened communication lines to Nightwing's comm. He desperately hoped Nightwing had followed his own advice when he lectured the entire team (including Robin, who had already heard the lecture from a Batman five times) on carrying a comm link on them at all times.

"Communications failed. Signal traced to Bludhaven." the computer crushed his hopes serenely, as it drilled off Nightwing's home address.

_Crap._


	2. Twinkle, twinkle, little bat

Robin nearly jumped in the air in surprise, but didn't. After all, he was a bat and bats do not admit surprise or weakness. He had been so engrossed in his work, he had not noticed Batgirl and the teams' senior members follow him into the room and have increased concern, as they listened to the computer tell them the location of Nightwing's comm. Right after, Blue Beetle, Impulse Beast Boy, Bumble Bee, Guardian, and Wondergirl had all come into the room, the latter asking her question. Robin ignored the question and instead turned to Batgirl.

Pleading look. What should I do?

Piercing glare. What have you done already?

Shrug. Checked his comm's location.

Raised eyebrow. What about hacking Arkham's security cameras?

"I'm an idiot!" Robin said aloud, face palming.

"Well that answers my question." commented Batgirl wryly.

"What question?" asked Beast Boy completely lost.

"Gar, Batman and his protégés current or former, have their own non-verbal form of communication." M'gann patiently answered.

"Oh."

Meanwhile, Robin was cracking all the passwords required, breaking down all of the firewalls, and generally wreaking havoc in Arkham City's 'impenetrable' database. Once he had broken in, he and Batgirl began searching for promising video feeds. They eventually, (over the course of a minute) had narrowed it down to one possibility.

"Shut Arkham City down, it's out of control." growled out Grayson.

"Shut it down? By the end of tonight I will be a hero. Just like you. Nightwing." leered Hugo Strange.

"I feel I should thank you. Capturing Richard Grayson is much easier than capturing Nightwing. But now that we have you, Protocol 10 is ready to begin it will be my legacy. A monument to you and your teams' failures. And if you try to stop me, I guarantee everyone will know your secrets." Strange continued smugly.

Strange exited the room, and suddenly everyone was talking. Robin and Batgirl turned to face the torrent of questions, but were nearly blown over by the force of them.

"Nightwing's who?"

"Who's the bald guy?"

"I thought Strange was running Belle Rev!"

"What's happening now!" Caught everyone's attention, as they saw Nightwing, now unmasked to them as Richard Grayson, tip over his chair and be promptly shoved from the room by one of Arkham City's many Tyger Guards yelling at him about how he thought that they wouldn't hear him. The team then watched in awe as Grayson took out one of the guards with his hands and ankles cuffed, before being swarmed, and shepherded out of the room, into a holding cell full of other inmates. Richard was seemingly unaffected by the inmates jeers and taunts.

"What did you do to get in here Grayson?"

"Kill your father's butler?"

"You're gonna be my bitch Grayson!"

All of these comments directed at their leader filled the Team with righteous fury for him, but the last comment nearly sent them over the edge, as well as a guard they were a little bit pleased to see shoot the last inmate in the leg for disobedience. Nightwing wad then shoved into a line waiting to enter the Asylum. More taunts were aimed his way.

"Hey Grayson! I heard Penguin's put a price on your head!"

"I'm gonna get me some cash!"

"No, you'll just get in my way!"

They were interrupted by a guard. "Hey! Grayson get your ass up here!"

He started to walk forwards, before he was stopped by an inmate. "Dick Grayson, you're on my list. Bang." He laughed before being interrupted by a guard, who roughly grabbed Richard and shoved him to the ground holding him at gunpoint. "Lower your weapons, Mr. Grayson will not be any trouble, will you Mr. Grayson?" Intervened Hugo Strange, warden of Arkham City. "The cuffs can stay on, we don't want to make things to easy, do we?" he said as Dick was roughly shoved into another holding cell with two news reporters.

"Dick Grayson? Here I was reporting at your crummy press conference, and look where we are now! Guess that'll teach you not to get involved with politics, won't it." he added bitterly.

"Listen to me carefully." replied Nightwing sternly, "When they open the door, Do. Not. Panic. Stay close to me."

"Do you think I'm taking advice from someone whose never even been in a fight?" answered the reporter angrily glaring at Nightwing. Most of the occupant's in the Watchtower's monitor room (with the exception of Robin, Batgirl, and Tigress who fully understood the severity of the situation as well as, Aqualad albeit barely) couldn't help, but smirk, laugh, or smile. If only he knew.

"Stay calm." Richard patiently repeated. "They're trying to scare us."

"Sorry man, it's every man for themselves!" replied the terrified reporter, sprinting through the walkway while covering his head to protect himself from the inmates jumping over the top of the high chain link fence. This time, even Kaldur couldn't keep a small smile off his face as he watched Nightwing beat up all the convicts with his hands cuffed. He walked over to the reporter laying on the ground yelling, "On your feet, Ryder! I said, get up!"

"Woah. I think Nightwing just channeled Batman." observed Bart in a no-nonsense manner. Tigress just smiled sadly thinking that's exactly like something Wally would say to lighten the mood. Now that he was gone, life just seemed so hard. Like an impossible task she was forced to complete. She looked back at the screen in time to see Oswald Cobblepot, more commonly known as the Penguin walk towards Dick.

"Well look who it is, welcome to hell Dickie boy." The team winced as an inmate snuck up behind Nightwing who didn't notice him with the unresponsive Rider over his shoulders and was hit my a metal pipe in the back of his knees and then his head. Next, they watched in horror, as Robin switched cameras, and they saw the Penguin knock him out by kicking him in the face.

The Penguin and his crew then walked a long distance, while dragging Richard the whole time. "Wakey, wakey, Grayson. Aw, what's up? Do you need me to call your butler?" he mocked Nightwing as he struggled to stand.

"Oswald Cobblepot, how could I forget."

"Aw, you remember me. I'm touched. You're adopted father's family destroyed mine, Grayson." The team had to resist the urge to laugh at one of Penguin's thugs mocking his employer from behind. "This, well let's just call this good old fashioned revenge." he said smugly as he put on a pair of brass knuckles. He went in for a swing and was promptly awarded several broken bones for his trouble.

The man emitted a bird like screech and yelled, "Ahhhh! Get him, hurt him! He's broken my bloody hand!" As Nightwing was surrounded by thugs the Team had no doubts that he could take them all down. And he did. Within the space of three minutes. Robin and Batgirl were then faced with the nearly impossible task of using various security cameras to watch Nightwing's progress to higher ground. The team was then impressed, as they saw Nightwing make a makeshift communicator tuned to the Bats' special channel from scratch.

"Alfie-" "*Sigh* Agent A Nightwing, how many times must I tell you to call him that incase someone hacks the link. Don't say I'm over paranoid, the Batjet's scanners are picking up someone else on the channel." Batman cut him off.

"That would be us." Batgirl cut him off. "Us?" asked Batman. "Well, we were watching Nightwing's speech on the news with the rest of the Team and saw his incarceration at Arkham. Then, we hacked Arkham's security cameras and saw his one on one time with Hugo strange."

"Can I say you're over paranoid now?"

"Focus Nightwing."

"It's not good. Strange knows my secret identity."

"Then he could know ours by extension. This is not good."

"I don't mean to interrupt you masters and mistress," cut in a proper English accent, "but do you intend to brood all night?"

"Right, right, I need an immediate drop on the Ace chemicals building I'm there now. Also, send a spare communicator."

"You do realize you have to stay and find out what's going on?" "Of course, this could lead us to the Light." "Also, don't think you haven't escaped the don't forget your comm link at home lecture. For the twenty-third time." warned Batman. "You're still keeping track?" asked a sheepish Nightwing.

"Sending the drop right now. Has it arrived sir?" Intervened the same english man.

"Right on time. Thanks, Alf- Agent A" Nightwing scanned his hand on a scanner and the bullet shaped metal object it was located on, popped open revealing his costume. To respect Nightwing's privacy Robin looked through the other cameras and hacked Tyger communication lines.

"All units, this Air Tyger 4 we have conformation that prisoner 4011 is in the courthouse. I repeat Catwoman is in the courthouse."

"Is she in danger?" Hugo Strange's voice cut across the communications line.

"Affirmative. Target is being held by Dent. We believe he intends to kill her. How should we proceed?"

"Hahaha, stand down, let Two-Face have his fun." Strange said before closing the communication line.

"Chill Bats, I'll go get her first. If anyone knows what's going on in Arkham, it's Catwoman." said Nightwing predicting Batman's demand that he go help Catwoman first.

"Good. Batman out."

"Oh, and Nightwing," "Yeah Robin?" "The Team has been listening in the whole time."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone, but Lagoon Boy."

"Do they know my ID?"

"What do you think?" Batgirl dead panned.

"Is not too much to ask?"

"They know 'Wing."

"*Sigh* Well you might as well turn on the video and audio feed from my mask and I can explain to them how to use strategy when they fight villians. We need it."

"Okay, turning on video and auditory now."

"Is it working?"

"Perfectly. Also, your spare pair of escrima sticks are at your apartment in Bludhaven. I sent Huntress to get them, but it could take a while, she's on her bike."

"I'll just have to make do without them, let's go." Nightwing fired off his grappling hook and made his way over to the courthouse. Once he got to the front he made quick work of the thugs standing guard outside and made his way inside. He looked over and the feed from his mask showed Two-Face on a stage, in front of a statue of Lady Justice with one half of her scales lit on fire the other not, and a circular red curtain over a bubbling green pool of acid. Over fifty inmates were in a crowd below the stage, cheering him on. The audio in Nightwing's mask caught all of Two-Face's words.

"The only way to get by in this place is to get our selves some respect." pondered Two-Face's good(ish) half. "Fear! Fear! That's how we get respect show them all how we do things!" his really not-so-good half growled out, turning around. "We should be fair though, this is a place of justice after all." reasoned good cop. "Screw justice! Kill her, and they'll all fear us!" roared bad cop. "Bring out the defendant!" The curtain fell away revealing a bound Catwoman hanging upside down, causing cheers to go up from the crowd of inmates. She turned to look at Two-Face.

"You certainly know how to keep a girl hanging Harv. Heeeeyyyyy, have you had some work done?" She was met with a backhand punch to the face. "That's for stealing from us, no one steals from us." he raged at her. "I'm sorry if I've been a bad kitty, untie me and I'll make it up to you. she said to him in a way that could only be described as flirtatious. "Let's see if the coin thinks you're telling the truth." he leered at her, holding his scarred half dollar up in the light. He flipped it. Heads. "This court is now in session." He announced to the inmates, invoking cheers.

"Taking out the thug with the gun makes taking out the rest of the thugs easy." Nightwing murmured through the audio as he completed the action, Two-Face called for order, and started his speech. Nightwing would have none of that and began to walk across a rope suspended above the crowd of inmates before flipping down on to one of their backs. As the team watched him take on the fifty other thugs, and listened to Two-Face's threats of cutting him in two, they were once again amazed by his fighting prowess. Punch, flip, kick, dive, jab, tuck and roll, backhand, and repeat. He never faltered or showed self-doubt, and soon all the thugs were knocked out.

Only for Nightwing to be shot in the chest. "Objection" Nightwing was blown back by the force of the impact, "overruled." Two-Face walked over to Catwoman. "Heads or Tails kitty cat?" he asked her (while holding her at gun point.)

"Which one gets me out alive?" He flipped his special coin. Tails.

"Not this one." he smiled.

"I vote for a stay of execution." she said breaking her bonds and scratching the good side of his face in the process. "No gun Harv? Shame, this is gonna hurt." she mocked while smiling, as she unsheathed her claws. Two-Face startled her to say the least, by pulling out another gun "Two guns, b*tch!" The smile on Catwoman's face fell and reappeared when she saw Nightwing hoist Two-Face up upside down with a rope, (screaming) and hang him by his feet from where she had previously been.

"And I thought it was cats who had nine lives." she commented, nearly laughing as Two-Face screamed while suspended over the acid she had previously been. She walked up to him and crouched down so she was face to face with him. "How's it hanging, Harv?" she asked. Before kneeing him as hard as she could in the crotch, causing all male members of Young Justice to shiver in sympathy. "Come to Kitty." she quipped taking a smartphone and sticking it in her half zipped up black leather bodysuit before turning to Nightwing. "Did anyone tell you and Bats that your full of surprises?" she asked.

"You looked like you could have used some help and Bats would kill me if I didn't help a lady out."

"You're right, I think I chipped a nail back there."

"Haha."

"So what are you here for. Incase you're lost, this isn't Bludhaven."

"What do you know about Protocol 10?"

"Never heard of it."

"Ah-ha." he said disbelievingly, but didn't pry.

"What about Strange?"

"I don't trust him. He's been missing for years and is suddenly put in charge of Arkham City. Rumor has it he's been working with Joker.-"

Back at the Watchtower, Robin turned to Batgirl "That is not good."

She turned to him. "What gave you that idea, Sherlock?"

Tim was about to respond when the Joker's voice came over the still open communication lines of the Tyger guards. "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat. Watch me kill your favorite cat."

"Nightwing look out!" Batgirl went to warn him, but he was already moving, having noticed the dot from a sniper's scope on Selina's forehead. He grabbed her, and yanked her to the side.

"The ex-district attorney here, has said something about-What the hell!" she yelled at him.

"We really dodged a bullet back there." he said grinning Catwoman and everybody on the watchtower watching them groaned except for Beast Boy and Impulse who didn't realize he was joking. "I don't get it." announced Impulse. "Me neither." agreed Beast Boy.

"See you soon, bird brain." The Joker's voice echoed over the communications line with what would have been a haunting laugh, had it not turned into a coughing fit

Catwoman turned to Nightwing "I thought you got over those stupid puns. You expecting a kiss?" she asked Nightwing referring to their position.

"That was Joker this is not good. No one is safe here, and my puns are not stupid!"

Catwoman chose to ignore his second statement and replied, "Nine lives, remember?" before flipping away.

Nightwing turned on his comm to question, "Are my puns really stupid?"

"Do you want me to tell you the truth or save your dignity?" replied Batgirl

"Touché."


	3. That crazy lady strikes

"I need to locate where the bullet entered the court and where it impacted. Batgirl, detective mode please." muttered Nightwing, trying-and failing to cover up the blow to his ego by getting down to business.

"Detective mode activated." replied Batgirl coolly. The members of the team couldn't help but be impressed when Nightwing's mask's field of vision turned blue from the feedback from the scanners now activated.

"The bullet hit the floor here, now where did it enter the room?" questioned Nightwing zooming into a section of the floor with a bullet hole in it. Nightwing walked over to the window the bullet came through and scanned it for holes he found one and an orange line appeared leading from the hole in the window to the one on the floor. "The trajectory the bullet traveled will lead me to the shooter." "The church? I thought those were supposed to be places of peace." joked Nightwing.

"You do know your jokes are as bad as your puns, right?" Batgirl dead panned.

"Right, right. I'm going." Nightwing said hurriedly. He fired his grappling gun and started flipping, grappling, running, and beating up any thug he came across on the way to the church and easily dispatching the thugs with their faces painted guarding the entrance. He opened both sets of double doors in the church to a crowd of more thugs.

"Coming through, Batbrat!" was cheerily yelled at him, courtesy of Harley Quinn who executed a flawless triple round off and attempted to hit Nightwing, only to be punched in the stomach so hard she was sent flying back.

"Ow!" she screeched.

"Let the lady go Bird freak, or these people all get a bullet in their heads!" said a thug quickly after seeing his (temporary) leader get knocked over so fast.

"I think you should listen to what he says, after all I'd hate to get blood all over my nice new outfit. What do you think, Batbrat like it? Of course you do who wouldn't?" she crowed happily brushing off the red and black revealing costume with diamond decals and a corset to add. "See here's the deal, Mistah J really is not up for a visit right now, he's not feeling himself." she elaborated while circling Nightwing. "Well actually, he was earlier, but that's not what I meant. He's not doing so well and that idiot doctor I sent from here didn't help!" She said this with such fury, that the senior team members watching these events play out would be glad they were not on the receiving end of that (misguided) anger, but they had heard stories from the bats about her abilities and were not impressed. The younger team members were _very_ concerned for Nightwing. Batgirl and Robin just rolled their eyes at Harley's usual love struck attitude about someone hurting her Mistah J. "I've seen more smarts from these bozos!" she added in a 'Can you believe it?' tone. "I've got to run boys," she said turning to her thugs. "if he does anything funny, kill him!" she added yelling while pointing a finger gun at her head before blowing him a kiss and striding out of the church. Nightwing immediately threw some gas pellets to the ground and grappled on to the nearest gargoyle in the ensuing chaos from the thugs yells and wild shots. He then swiftly swung over to the nearest gargoyle and quickly made his way to the back of the church's lobby where he dropped down and took out two unsuspecting thugs by bashing there heads together. "You're safe, stay quiet." he ordered a hostage before grappling over to another room, bursting through a wall, and taking out another terrified thug.

"Stay back bird brain I have a gun!" was the last thing a thug was able to utter before he was knocked out. The same procedure was repeated until all the captors in the room were unconscious.

"Okay does everyone understand? Look after the wounded keep the bad guys out. Were a team let's keep it that way." stated a security guard who appeared to be in charge. He turned to see Nightwing running towards him. "Thank god you got here." he praised Nightwing.

"After what happened at the Asylum, I'd think you'd want to settle for a quiet desk job." Nightwing said wryly.

"Yeah right, when Sharp closed the old asylum down, it turned out there wasn't much jobs for an ex-security guard who failed to stop a mass breakout. This is the only work I can get."

"Batman's told you this, and I'll tell you this too. What happened back there wasn't your fault, Cash. It's the truth." sighed Nightwing. "What was Harley Quinn doing here?"

"That crazy," (This time M'Gann was able to cover up Beast Boy's ears in time, but he still got the gist of what Cash was saying) "bitch busted in a couple hours ago with the rest of these idiots. Took something up the tower than blew up the staircase."

"Thanks, I'll check it out."

"Wait! I mean sorry, Nightwing I forgot a couple of them grabbed one of the 'docs. Quinn said something about needing her to fix up the Joker."

"Don't worry, I'll find her. Harley and the Joker aren't the most subtle, they leave that to Riddler, Catwoman and occasionally Zsasz. You concentrate on securing this church. It should keep you all safe."

"Will do, hope you find the doc, her name's Stacy Baker. She's one of the good ones."

"Okay, we saw Catwoman, hottie by the way, and we fight Riddler all the time, but whose Zsasz?" inquired Impulse asking the new question on everyones' minds.

Batgirl left Robin to monitor the feed from Nightwing's mask and pulled up a holographic picture and profile of Zsasz. "Victor Zsasz alias Zsasz is an insane serial killer who believes that the only way to save the human race from a zombie apocalypse is by killing all possible would be zombie victims. For every victim he kills, he adds a tally mark to his skin to keep track. Besides displaying insane and sociopathic tendencies, Zsasz is unpredictable, unstable, and will kill you first chance he gets, he never holds ransoms for his victims. He is serving out multiple life sentences with no chance of parole and has 114 cases of man slaughter proven against him and at least 58 unproven or pending cases where he is the main suspect. Furthermore,-" Batgirl's gruesome speech to everyone but Robin was interrupted by the church's bell tower blowing up.

"What happened!" screeched Batgirl to Robin.

"Uh, Nightwing kind of blew up the tower." replied Robin sheepishly.

Bumble Bee turned to Batgirl. "Dang girl, keep screeching like that and I really will think you are part bat!" Batgirl blushed while looking back at the screen.

"Nightwing to Robin I've located the signal used to control the gun. Joker's behind this. Bats won't be happy about this."

"Yeah, I barely heard the clown over Batgirl lecturing the team about Zsasz. And you mean _if_." he corrected Nightwing. "Bats is off world on a mission and logged off of communications." Robin added for good measure.

"Agent A is updating me on everything you're saying and what's going on." Came Batman's gruff voice across the comm link.

"I'll leave you to your lecture then." laughed Nightwing as he grappled to the coordinates of the signal to the sniper rifle in the bell tower of the church.

"Lantern, look out!" yelled Batman. "You're lucky we're being attacked by flesh eating space aliens." he added. "Don't think you won't be getting the never think Batman isn't listening to your conversations lecture. Batman out."

"The radio signal should lead me right to-" Nightwing was cut off by Harley Quinn.

"Listen up dumb asses, and listen _carefully, _as you know, Mistah J is... he's... not feeling himself. And the last thing he needs is any so called heroes bursting in here and stopping his so called recuperation! That's where you morons come in. You need to protect the Steel Mill. Protect it with your lives! Because if you fail, I'll make sure the visits of your life don't mean zip! Get it? Good!"

"-him. Well, that just made my job a little harder. Robin do you know any alternate routes?"

Batgirl cut off Robin's response. "I'm going to warn you 'Wing, the only accessible route to the inside of the mill is suicide, but-"

"Through the main chimney, I figured." Nightwing cut her off before grappling in. He then proceeded to navigate his way through several hundred yards of metal piping, air vents and jets of steam with the aid of his grappling hook and his skills. Nightwing was sneaking down a lower walkway when he passed an arena of convicts, Harley Quinn, and the missing doctor.

"I promised you some entertainment, didn't I boys?" Harley practically snarled. Nightwing started to pick up the pace.

"Please, I tried my best." begged Dr. Baker.

"Well, then you should have tried harder." was yelled back at her by a certain love crazed clown. The doctor's resounding screams were heard mixed in with the inmates cheers. "That useless quack has failed Mistah J and you know what that means." Harley was met by chants of "Kill, Kill, Kill!" Nightwing was definitely picking up the pace now.

"Oh, I think we can do better than that!" The resounding sound of metal smacking meat and the doctor's agonized screams made most of the team feel sick.

"Señorita, you live in a loco city." was all Blue Beetle had to say to Batgirl.

"Tell me about it."

"Heeeeelllllllpppppp me!" was heard from the arena as well as, the banging of metal on metal.

"Stop! Change of plans! Take her to the smelting chamber. Mistah J wants this one to suffer a little bit longer!" laughed Harley in delight.

"You're coming with us 'doc." was stated by a distinctly male voice.

"That's it the rest of you idiots get out of here! You know what to do go get the snow man and bring him back here right now! He's gonna pay for screwing over Mistah J I needed him back here like yesterday!" she demanded as groups of thugs left the building. Nightwing then jumped up and made quick work of the thugs.

He then turned to an incredibly painful to look at neon likeness of the Joker with two doors in its jaws. A very angry Harley Quinn came striding out. "What the hell are you doing here, you're supposed to be dead! Well, there's no way you're getting to Mistah J, were safe and sound up here. You can just stay down there and burn!" On that pleasant note, the doors sealed shut in front of Harley.

"Nightwing to Robin, Joker's goons dragged off a Dr. I'm going to get her back first."

"Okay."

Nightwing then ran up and down halls and around numerous corners before he got to a room of thugs going on about killing him and Batman and about their secret crushes on Harley. Nightwing didn't pay much attention to what they had to say. He quickly dispatched them with relative ease and proceeded on to the next room to hear the goons talking to there hostage.

"This was supposed to be your last chance to make things good. Harley says if you can't fix the boss we gotta hurt you. Bad." The thug almost sounded sad about hurting the doctor and it made the team (mostly the girls besides Artemis and Batgirl who both lived in Gotham) think there was hope for him. Nightwing grappled up onto a gargoyle and dropped down onto a patrolling thug, knocked him out, crashed through a window, and saved the doctor within thirty seconds. The Team was once again impressed.

"How do you think poor Mistah J is gonna get better if you fail to stop the dumb bird!" screeched Harley over the intercom as Nightwing walked over and untied the doctor.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

"Give me a second. What's wrong with these people? That crazy woman thinks I can fix the Jokah." she quivered out.

"What's wrong with him?"

"There's something in his blood,some kind of toxin, it's killing him. He blames something called...Titan."

"The plot thickens." interrupted Batgirl completely unconcerned for the Joker.

"Titan?" Nightwing's face was shadowed with worry.

"Yeah, do you know what he's talking about? He kept going on about last laugh."

"Ah-ah,_ 'doc _isn't that information supposed to be..._confidential. _Interrupted Harley's voice from the intercom on a mannequin in front of them.

"What's happening, how does she know what were saying?" fretted the panicked doctor.

"Get that door sealed up nice and tight boys, we don't want that vermin escaping do we?" trilled Harley over the intercom.

"At least they won't be getting in. We're safe, right?" Nightwing chose to ignore that question and turned around to the voltage measuring station and started to rip it apart.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Sorry doc, I need to get out of here someone needs to stop Joker." he said putting together a new device. "Stay here you'll be safe."

"You're sure?"

"If you hear anyone coming, hide. I'll be back." Nightwing replied over his shoulder continuing on to leave a trail of unconscious thugs in his wake. His new device, which temporarily gave remote electric charges to turned off machines, his hacking skills, and his martial arts experience all came in handy. During that time, Hugo Strange's voice came on the intercom to inform everyone currently on the line that 'Protocol 10 will commence in nine hours.'

He approached another room that Harley was in. It had another painful neon Joker face around the door."How did you get out of the smelting chamber Batbrat? What did you make? Tell me! Tell me!" she demanded. Too slow, bird brain!" she added when tried to grapple onto the ledge she was on and failed as she closed the door. "Harley, get back here, I think I'm dying!" was heard from behind the door. He then used the new gadget he had and used an electrical current to build up enough momentum for a crane to smash into the doors and knock the surrounding Joker face off too.

"What's wrong with you Batbrat, you come to Mistah J's home and start smashing things! Don't you know he's sick!" Harley yelled outraged. When Nightwing promptly tried to grapple up, he was knocked down by a giant one armed man. "Surprise Batbrat, meet Mr. Hammer, he's gonna teach you some manners!" she added for good measure.

"Woooaaahhhh, that's a big hammer! Who is that guy?" Wondergirl thought aloud. Batgirl pulled up another villain profile "Mr. Abramovici (first name unknown) alias Mr. Hammer he had a russian twin Mr. Sickle who also worked for a russian circus as freaks and then the Joker. All their lives until a few months ago, they have been conjoined at their torsos until they were forcibly split in half by the Joker. The Joker chose Mr. Hammer over Mr. Sickle as one of his enforcers. Mr. Sickle has currently been spotted with the Penguin's gang, though no physical evidence has been uncovered of Mr. Sickle being part of the gang. Both have brutal mind sets and are responsible for 43 murders together and 16 and two separately respectively. They are each serving life sentences with a chance of parole.

While Batgirl had explained who Mr. Hammer was, Nightwing had defeated said villain and a group of thugs. He was about to grapple up to the ledge when he heard Harley utter "No!" and a sound he was all to familiar to him. A flat line from a heart monitor. Harley was crouched at the Joker's feet crying. The Joker was sitting in a wheel chair and the monitor connected to him was flatlining. "Batgirl and Robin, you getting this?" asked Nightwing.

"Loud and clear, 'Wing." answered Robin.

"I can't believe he's really dead." said Batgirl.

"Fifty bucks he's not." challenged Robin. Batgirl was about to answer when the comm crackled to life.

"Robin, rule thirty seven."

"I know Batman, no betting on the job."

"Then follow the rule, Batman out."

"Why, why, why, why, why." sobbed Harley. She turned towards Nightwing when she heard his footsteps. "You!" she snarled.

"Move, Quinn." was his only reply. When didn't do the required action, he grabbed her arm and shoved her to the side.

"Hu-ooh! This all your fault! You and B-man," she ranted as he used detective vision to search for signs of life. When he was satisfied that there was no breathing, pulse, or even a struggling heart beat he turned it off in time to catch the end of Harley's rant. "-not to mention that new bird idiot and Bratgirl have hounded him for years, beat him to a pulp and for what?" she said staring at him with tear filled eyes as she slowly backed away from him, but there was something else in those eyes that looked like glee. She looked like the fox that was about to snap up dinner. Then he was jumped from behind.

"Surprise!" screamed the Joker in his ear. While he breathed in a sweet scent the Joker was pressing to his nose. Sweet scent...Chloroform! Nightwing threw the Joker off, but it was too late. The chloroform had left him disoriented, so when Harley went "Batter up!" and started hitting him with a baseball bat and as his world faded to black, he couldn't help but think _Three strikes you're out._


	4. Language, bad puns, and PMSing heroes

"Nightwing? Nightwing are you there? Come in Nightwing." Nightwing woke to a pounding headache. His vision was spinning, he had awoken tied up, and was just in time to see Harley reaching to take off his mask. Right when he was prepared to lurch back and knock Quinn down by sweeping out her legs from under her, he was ironically saved by the Joker.

"Get back here, Harley!" he growled before breaking off into another coughing fit.

"But I want know who he is sweetie." she whined, making everyone watching (including Nightwing) wince.

"No one's who you think they are my dear." he soothed, "Why spoil the fun?"

"It was all a lie. Nothing's wrong with you." Nightwing guessed. The Joker began prowling towards him, while his voice took on a quality that promised hurt, if Nightwing didn't choose his next words well.

"Nice of you to say, but you of all people should, know there's plenty wrong with me." he leered, stepping out of the shadows.

"Shit! That's an ugly face!" Garfield yelled, only to get lightly cuffed over the head by an irate M'Gann.

"Garfield! Language!"

Nightwing didn't react visibly to the (even uglier than usual) pale face, but Robin's brow furrowed, and Batgirl gasped "That's not normal. Even for him."

Meanwhile, the Joker continued, unaware of the insults being said about him in outer space. "Take my blood, for example." he started off cheerily. "I wish someone would." he grumbled. "This stuff is killing me!" he ended laughing hysterically.

"Por dios, he had more mood swings than a PMSing señorita." Blue grumbled. The Team's females all collectivelyturned around and demanded, "What did you say?!"

"Uh...nothing." came the nervous reply. "Oh look! Crisis that needs help, gotta go!" yelled Beetle running off to the Zeta platform, while everyone focused back on Nightwing.

"Why should I care?"

"Cause now, even though it was supposed to be for Bats," grumbled Joker, "there's a teeny little bit of me in you too, Batbrat." When he heard that, Nightwing turned his head and saw an IV somehow attached to his arm through the suit, and started to struggle, as he was panicking. "Oh coooome on," he broke off coughing, "don't tell me it's not what you've always wanted." he giggled. "Look, we're running out of time. I need your help, I nearly had a cure! he said, pacing the floor. It was so close! And then it was taken from me!"

"So we both die. I'm fine with that." Nightwing retorted with an even tone.

"Are you?" The clown prince smiles deviously. "Imagine, sucking down that last breath knowing that Gotham is doing the same." he hissed, right in Nightwing's face.

"What are you talking about?" Nightwing demanded somewhat fearfully.

"Oh, didn't I say, I've spent weeks shipping samples of my blood to emergency rooms all over the city. Oh, Bludhaven too. That is where we sent the samples, right pooh?" he asked turning to Harley. "Oh dear me, my sickness is causing dementia and memory loss." he said placing a hand on his forehead, not even bothering to listen to Harley's response.

"So that's protocol 10." Poison Gotham." smirked Nightwing smugly. "I expected more."

"Protocol 10?" gasped the clown. "Never heard of it." was the deadpan that greeted Suddenly, he smiled a sick smile. Hold tiiiight." he whispered right next to Nightwing's ear, grunting as he shoved the wheel chair Nightwing was bound to out the window onto the unforgiving ground two stories below. Seemingly as an afterthought, he yelled, "I'll be touch!" before submitting to a coughing fit.

"Nightwing? Come in, Nightwing. Damn it Dick, I say this way too much!" yelled Barbara thought the comm link.

"What. Happened?" growled Batman through the comm. The sound of people screaming was prominent in the background.

Batgirl sighed. He wasn't going to like hearing about this. "The Joker and Harley Quinn tricked Nightwing and poisoned him with the Joker's blood."

"How?" came a gruff deadpan.

"Honestly, I don't know, my guess is that the Titan formula reacted badly with the chemicals from the Ace Chemical Plant already in his system, as all the other Titan exposed thugs died."

"He also fell out of a two story window, tied to a wheel chair!" shouted Robin from the background.

"He's had worse. Keep yelling into the comm. he'll eventually wake up. Batman out."

Nightwing groaned, grabbing the cell phone strapped to his chest that was blaring annoying circus music. He ripped it off his chest and sighed. "I'm listening."

"Is someone feeling a little down?" the clown prince mocked.

"What do you want?" Nightwing rudely interrupted. Though the Team could hardly blame him. He had just learned the person on the other end of the phone was responsible for poisoning him.

"Cheer up Bird Brain, it won't kill you. Oops." he added in nastily.

"Where is the cure? Who has it?" Nightwing interrogated, trying not to lose his temper again and amuse the deranged man-no monster once more.

"I had our cold-hearted friend Mr. Freeze making it, but he's gone dark on me."

"I'll find him."

"I bet you will-" The Joker's last sentence was cut off as Nightwing crushed the phone and pulled out a chip in the phone's inner workings, slipping it into his utility belt, and dropping the shell of the phone. Pressing his comm he opened up the link.

"Agent A, Joker's poisoned me. He may have poisoned Gotham too. Mr. Freeze has the only cure."

"What are you waiting for? He's in Arkham City, find him." Batgirl cut across the link.

"If only it were that simple. He needs to be kept at sub zero temperatures to survive."

"I don't wish to worry you, Master and Miss, but it is the middle of winter out there."

"I noticed."

"He noticed."

"I've upgraded the mask to track heat signatures. I'll find the coldest point in Arkham City. Oh, and Batgirl?"

"Yeah?"

"You have to admit, even my puns are better than the Joker's."

"Touché."


	5. Hacking, explosions, and illegal betting

Nightwing grappled up to the nearest roof and ran across it, his breath making puffs in the air. He continued to move towards the coldest area in the make-shift prison, grappling, flipping, and running with his normal precision and grace. As he reached the old Gotham Police Department, he said audibly to the listening Team, "Freeze must be using one of the old forensics labs. I need to get in there." Nightwing jumped from the Department's roof, and landed on a thug. While the thug was still dazed, Nightwing swiftly knocked him out and grappled back up to the roof. When another thug came around the corner, Nightwing dove off again, repeating the process. Once all the thugs were taken care of, he fired pulled an the electrical device he had made out of his belt, aimed it the at the top of the door, and fired.

"What's that called?" wondered Beast Boy out loud.

"It's a remote electrical charge," explained Robin as Batgirl continued to monitor Nightwing, as he ran past a bunch of already knocked out penguin thugs. "Each shot contains about 20 watts and can open doors if fired at the generators from several feet away."

"Cool. Where do you keep it on your-"

Nightwing interrupted Beast Boy by muttering, "If I hack this radio, I can listen into all of Penguin's communications." He completed the action and the Team immediately had the misfortune to hear both the overweight, squawking Londoner's voice and the overconfident thugs and street pimps that he employed, through the walkie talkie.

"The Joker's crew is still outside Mr. Cobblepot." reported an eager to please thug.

"Good," chuckled the Penguin, "make sure it stays that way."

"No problem." replied the thug before yelling at the rest of those employed. "Now listen up! Mr. Cobblepot wants this place held tight. No one in or out! If you see ones of Joker's crew, waste 'em." he lectured, as Nightwing grappled onto a gargoyle placed inside the room.

"What about the Bat?" questioned a concerned thug.

"Kill him to." Was the answer he got.

"Just like that?" asked the thug sounding unsure.

"Just. Like. That." was the annoyed reply that he received from his comrade.

In the watchtower, Barbara and Tim just rolled their eyes under their masks. No thug was a match for Nightwing, even if he was poisoned. Nightwing removed the cover top an air vent and started to crawl through it, emerging about halfway up the wall in the next room. He flipped down and snuck up behind a thug, silently cutting off his airway and knocking him out. He grappled up onto another indoor gargoyle and moved onto another thug. Suddenly, one of the thugs yelled. "It's the Bat!" causing the remaining conscious thugs to begin to panic.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him!" squawked the Penguin through the thug's walkie talkies. Nightwing managed to knock out another two thugs before he was spotted.

"I've lost one of you idiots!" Cobblepot yelled, completely disrespecting his hired help. "Let's keep it at that!"

"It's not the Bat!" yelled a thug, relief coloring his voice, "It's Nightwing!"

"I don't care whether or not it's the Batman, his bird boys, or Batgirl. I want them dead!" screeched Cobblepot. "I've shut down all access to the GCPD. He's not going anywhere."

"Why don't you hack into the access and help out Nightwing?" Wondergirl fretted to Batgirl. Barbara just raised one eyebrow under the cowl.

"Does it look like he needs help?"

"Well, no..."

"I'm not telling you anything. No, please, stop!" The begging immediately drew everyone's attention to the screen. Nightwing had a thug pinned to the ground on his stomach and was slowly twisting his arm behind his back. The display completely shocked some of the younger team members who had not seen this more ruthless side of their leader and didn't understand the force sometimes required to make the criminals in Gotham talk.

"Where. Is. Freeze." Nightwing ground out channeling some of his inner Batman. "I'll tell you! I'll tell you!" screamed the thug in pain. "He's in the museum. Penguin's got him." While the bats and the senior members of the Team were unimpressed with the thug's loyalty, or lack thereof, the rest of the Team were still surprised by Nightwing's actions.

"I'll have to cut that tongue out of your head, boy." growled his boss over the walkie talkie. "I don't enjoy people telling tales about me."

"No, I-I'm sorry, Mr. Cobblepot, h-h-he made me t-tell him." the thug stuttered, in terror of Cobblepot's threats and Nightwing's glare. The thug was swiftly knocked out, but as Nightwing turned, the Penguin began to taunt him over the loudspeaker.

"You can have him, Bird boy, I'm safe and sound up here in my museum. You can try and get me if you like. I have plenty of surprises waiting for the Bat, but you'll have to do. Starting right now."

"How much do you want to bet that Nightwing will make him eat his words in an hour?" Robin asked Batgirl.

"Twenty bucks says that he will do it in two hours."

"You're on."

"Didn't Batman tell you no betting?" asked a puzzled M'Gann.m

"He won't know if we don't bet on the comms." Batgirl smirked and turned back to the monitor, which was emanating a thundering sound.

"That doesn't sound good." Robin and Nightwing stated at the same time, as the lock gates in the only visible entrance and exits to the room Nightwing had just run into came down. The Penguin's laughter was audible from over the loud speaker.

"Agent A." Nightwing called into his comm.

"Hello sir. Have you retrieved the cure from Mr. Freeze?" questioned the elderly butler.

"There were complications. Penguin has got his hands on Freeze and trapped me in the GCPD building."

"You do realize that you will actually die if you do not get this cure soon." the butler sighed.

"Thanks for reminding me." Nightwing smiled at the Brits somewhat cynical nature. "Cobblepot's got me trapped in here. He obviously bribed some official into giving him the lock codes for the municipal structures. I'm downloading the unlock codes right now." he narrated for both Alfred's and the Team's benefit.

Then, he unlatched the entrance to a vent in the floor and crawled over to the next room where a lock was located and got back out. A few seconds and one hacked lock later, Nightwing opened the door and walked outside, just in time to get thrown off his feet by a large explosion, about a mile away. Both Cobblepot's cackling and proclamation that, "Now we've cut off the clowns forces easily!" were audible over the hacked communications line.

"Robin, Batgirl what just happened?" Nightwing questioned them over the line. "It looks like Penguin just blew up the main supply bridge leading into Arkham City, killing or trapping a large group of both his and the Joker's thugs." Robin replied as he squinted at a screen. Most of the Team looked sick at the amount of bodies strewn on the monitor and the state of several shredded corpses.

Meanwhile, on the hacked Tyger Guard line, Hugo Strange's mocking laughter and cold voice was heard. "It appears Mr. Cobblepot has made his move. Leave them to it. It will be interesting to see how things progress as we approach Protocol 10."

"Affirmative. AT3 continue your patrol out."

"Does he think that the loss of human life is a game?!" demanded Batgirl to no one in particular.

"Nightwing will bring him down." Artemis reassured her while glaring at the screen, where Nightwing had just started wiping the floor with some of the Penguin's thugs guarding the museum entrance. "This will be easy, freak!" one shouted, only to get drop kicked. In no time flat Nightwing took them all out. "You were saying?" he muttered to the unconscious men before entering.


	6. A T-Rex, hero love drama, and blackmail

Nightwing jumped through an open window and into a group of thugs guarding the museum. "It's the Bat!" one screamed only to be corrected by his comrade.

"No, you idiot, it's Nightwing. This is gonna be easy."

Nightwing began whaling on all of the thugs and in no time the man was eating his words. Suddenly, a heliocopter's blades were audible, a blinding spotlight focused on Nightwing, and chatter came over the Tyger guards radio channel, filling the monitor womb at the Watchtower. "All freaks are down. Nightwing is clear." The update made most of the Team frown that Nightwing was being followed so easily by Hugo Strange's eyes in the sky. The piercing sound of a payphone ringing nearby broke them out of their revelation. Quickly typing in some numbers, Batgirl began to hack the call and answered Nightwing's question before he could even ask.

"No, you should definitely not answer the phone." muttered Batgirl. "It's being traced to the area where Zsasz was last seen." she added to Nightwing's questioning grunt.

"So, it could be someone that he's hunting calling out for help." Nightwing growled through his communicator, startling some of the Team's younger members.

"Or it could be Zsasz trying to make a hostage call to you. Don't let yourself get sidetracked."

"An innocent person could be dying right now, Bar-Batgirl. Do you think I want their death on my shoulders?" Nightwing argued.

"Damn it, Dick! You are dying! If you don't find the cure to your blood poisoning soon, you will die. Along with countless others who have excepted blood transfusions from Joker's blood!" On the security camera footage, the lenses in Nightwing's mask visibly narrowed. "You have to choose one life or many." she finished sadly. "What would Batman do?" she tried to add helpfully.

"I'm not Batman." was his only response, his voice taking on an even grimmer quality before he shut off his comm link. Batgirl sighed, looking down at the keyboard in the monitor room.

"Sometimes, Dick, you make it really hard to be your gi-friend." Miss Martian sensing her distress began to sheperd all the of the Team's younger members out of the monitor womb, despite their protests of "We're part of the Team too!" and "We won't know what happens to Nightwing now!"

Once all of the younger members had left the room, Artemis voiced her thoughts first. "I know that look you have, Wally had it all the time that I was undercover. The two of you are in a relationship, aren't you?" Batgirl's head whipped around. Along with most of the Team's senior members. If the two of them were in a relationship they were very subtle, unlike when the time when Nightwing (then Robin) and Zatanna were in a relationship. Then again, kissing each other in front of six other people, seven if you count Red Tornado on New Years kind of destroyed any chance that there was of keeping their relationship quiet.

"I'm not-we're not-Yeah, we are." she sighed sadly looking back at the screen.

Meanwhile, had hacked the lock on a heavy metal door and began to run through the halls of the museum somewhat regretfully. He knew that turning off his comm had hurt her, but he was not Bruce. After nearly having his head taken off by motion activated metal bars in the floor, he jumped through the window, raining glass all over the floor. He hacked another lock to deactivate the metal barrier and continued down the halls at a slightly faster pace to make up for time lost. For the record, "dinosaur" wasn't the greatest password for a prehistoric wing of a natural history museum. It made sense, though, he reflected, as he almost got hit by a roaring, animatronic T-Rex. Reacting quickly, he jumped on its head and flipped down into the shadow of a pillar. Three thugs were guarding the doorway into the next room and torturing what appeared to be a cop if the writing spray painted on his shirt was correct. Without hesitation, he tossed a batarang at the group stunning one, and electing cries of, "It's the bat!".

He made quick work of the remaining two thugs and swiftly freed the cop, whose shirt, on closer inspection said "Dead Cop".

"Your safe for now." said Nightwing in an uncanny resemblance to Batman.

"Thank God." replied the relieved cop, visibly relaxing, or at least as much as he could trapped in a maximum security prison.

"You may want to hold off on thanking him until you've answered my question." replied Nightwing. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Sorry, 'Wing, I'm a cop, Gordon sent us in here as a strike team, from the 13th precinct, I've been in here since the beginning."

"If you've been in here for that long, you'll know the code." hypothesized Nightwing looking at the cop.

"Oh yeah, yeah, he said, uh, what was it?" Nightwing's smirk, which had been from the officer's nickname for him began to fade as the cop struggled to remember the password.

"In order to save the rest of your strike team in here, I need the code. Now!" he growled in completely uncharacteristic impatience. "Didn't this guy know that as they spoke, people were dying?" he angrily thought. Then, he saw the officer's intimidated face and realized that he was acting like Bruce, demanding the information.

"It's...Sarah! He said to tell you the code is Sarah."

"You're safe officer." he said brightly, trying to make up for his previous treatment of the man.

"It's Jones, Nightwing. Elvis Jones."

"Gordon did tell Batman about sending your team in."

"Yeah, he did. Wanted to know what was going on in here." the cop laughed despairingly. "Guess we found out. There were ten of us...hopefully there still are."

"Batman told Gordon that it was too dangerous to send you in here!" Nightwing growled, mostly to himself, but the cop still heard him though.

"Yeah, Gordon was dead set about knowing what was going on, wouldn't even listen to Montoya's disagreements." he supplied.

"Stay here. If the rest of your team is alive, I'll find them." he ordered before taking off down the stairs and into the next hall. Reaching a fork in the hall he followed the spray painted writing that said, "New recruits, that way." However, his progress down that hall was blocked by yet another security gate. Quickly, he pulled out a remote control batarang, flung it through the air, and nailed the button controlling the gate. Before the gate was even fully opened, he sprinted through the opening, pelting down the hall.

As the high ceilinged room ahead of him came into view, so did another member of the 13th precinct. "Help...me." was all the man was able to struggle out before he was shot in the back by none other than the Penguin. Nightwing pulled a batarang out of his belt and was ready to hurl it at the villain, but the rogue stopped him short.

"Eh, eh, eh, I wouldn't do that if I were you." sneered the short man. "Show him what we got, lads!" he crowed, stepping to the side, to reveal Mr. Sickle clutching a choking police officer by his neck.

While the Penguin laughed loudly, Nightwing turned his communicator back on, muttering to Robin, "I guess we know who Mr. Sickle is working for now." referring to the many penguin tattoos on his chest.

"So Birdboy, you here for the cops, the Iceman, or me?" he leered at Nightwing from the safety of the balcony and a hostage.

"I was just here for Freeze and the hostages, but now I'm taking you down too." he growled.

"Woah, aren't you scary acting like a big boy, trying to be like your old man, eh. Well guess what, it's not working, lad." he laughed at the vigilante below him.

"Oh, it will."

"Will it really?" the man cackled yet again, and gestured for one of his henchmen to light his cigar. "You see here, I'm what you might call, ah collectah," he motioned for the same henchman to take his cigar back, as it was making him difficult to understand. "If someone wants it, I like to think I've got it. If I don't have it, I'll get it." he smiled. "So here's the deal," he continued, "back there I've got a cabinet back there with the big bad Bat's name on it just waiting to be filled. Unfortunately, you'll have to do. You'll make a great hostage." "As luck would have it," he cackled waving his umbrella around, and almost hitting one of his henchmen, "here you are standing there, right where I want you." The wide man continued after a pause. "So, are you going to be a good boy and give up nicely?" He grinned.

Nightwing was fuming. "You're not giving orders here anymore Cobblepot." The revolting man bared his teeth.

"I was hoping you'd say that. Look around you. You see all these horrible psychopaths are begging to join up with me. Unfortunately for them, I only take the best. And today, the best was whoever could kill Batman. Now it's whoever can catch you." he let the words sink in. "Come on out lads, it initiation time." he swung his umbrella behind him, hitting one of his henchmen right in between the legs, before guffawing and walking down the hall. However, Nightwing was more preoccupied fighting off the vicious hoard of psychos to notice this exchange.

"...and that's why sometimes he makes it so hard to not be angry with him!" wailed Barbara sobbing into M'Gann's shoulder, with Artemis nearby. Tim knew about Dick and Barbara's relationship and was completely unaffected by this new revelation, Connor and Kaldur were stunned and were awkwardly standing in the corner, both rather inexperienced with relationships in general. "Sorry about unloading all that onto you guys." sniffed Barbara, wiping some tears off her cowl.

"While I do love new blackmail material," muttered Robin, "Dick's turned his comm back on and might need some help."


	7. Ice puns and unfair expectations

Batgirl struggled to pull herself together. "What do you need, Nightwing?" she questioned in a steady voice.

"Well, I'd like to apologize for ignoring"-crunch-"you. That's not something"-pop-"that a good"-"Kill you! Kill you! Kill you!"-"boyfriend does and I'd like to make it up to you.""Aaaurrgh!" "How about dinner at Giulianno's at seven-"Beat it freak!"-"next Thursday?" he smirked flipping over a thug charging him. While he had knocked out around twenty of them, but there were still thirty left, and they were all very angry that he had knocked out their comrades.

In the monitor womb, Batgirl had a twin smirk on her face. "That's up to you, Hunk Wonder." she replied flirting back to him. Robin hunched farther over the keyboard he was typing at and muttered something about not being payed enough for this gig, much to Conner's confusion. There were still some references he didn't get, even at Five years old. Tim's mumblings, however, were cut off by Artemis.

"Wait, wait, wait, are you flirting?" gasped Artemis.

"Yeah?" replied the other female vigilante worried that she was in trouble for something.

"I just didn't know you had it in you." muttered the older woman once she realized how silly she sounded. Tim just face palmed much to Conner's relief. After being temporary den mother for the newbies, that was something he understood and speaking of the newbies... He was pretty sure that Batgirl was done crying and punching Robin, so it was probably pretty safe to let them back in.

Nightwing cackled and took out the last five guys with a drop kick, flip, two punches, and an uppercut, before contacting Alfred. "Agent A, I've found Penguin." he informed the British individual that most of the members of the Team had heard earlier.

"And Mr. Freeze, have you located the cure yet?" the elderly man interrogated Nightwing through the line. Nightwing winced.

"No, the situation is worse than we originally thought. Penguin has a supply of the Titan formula."

"He's got what? How the fuck did he get that off Arkham Island?" demanded a young and rather angry voice.

"Hood, good to hear you." chirped Nightwing.

"Why the hell are you in Arkham?!" the younger antihero growled, ignoring the older vigilantes greeting.

"Nice to see you to, Red Hood." muttered Tim, annoyed across the line.

"Shut it, Replacement." growled Red Hood.

"Hey, stop calling Robin that. He has a name you know." Nightwing said, defending his younger brother.

"He deserves-" started Red Hood before he was cut off by Batgirl, much to the Team's amusement.

"Just shut up, Hood." she growled.

"Oh, so now you're-"

"Stop."

"Oh, so now you're here Bru-"

"Hood, the Team is listening in!" interrupted Barbara, as Batman growled, at the same time, "No names in the field. Let's focus on the matter at hand, though. Nightwing, report." he drilled out.

"Penguin has somehow got Titan off Arkham Island and is injecting his thugs with it."

"I'm going over there now," muttered Red Hood. "I need to smash some faces in anyways."

"Negative." said his mentor. "I need you patrolling Gotham. Firefly is still on the lose."

"No he's not I shot him,-"

"Jason!"

"-out of the sky. You have to let me finish my sentences Red." he snarled to Batgirl. She was saved from having to argue back by Batman.

"Hood, patrol Gotham, Batgirl and Robin keep monitoring Nightwing, Huntress, where are you?"

"Turning around from Bludhaven now." replied a female voice that the Team had not heard of before.

"Get to Arkham." ordered Batman.

"You got it, Boss." she muttered sarcastically.

"How long has your comm been on?" wondered Robin aloud.

"The whole time." she dead panned, long enough for Batgirl's horrified embarrassment to sink in, before turning off her comm. As Batgirl sputtered, trying to justify herself, much to the Team's amusement, Batman ordered Nightwing, "Get the cure before more people get hurt." before signing off.

Pulling a remote control batarang from his belt, Nightwing hurled it over an arch and down a hallway. Maneuvering it so that it hit the open button, he ran through the opening security gate, casually trod ding on an inmate as he did so. Reaching yet another locked gate, he pulled out his cryptographic squencer and easily cracked the password. Again, the words dinosaur and Jurassic we're't the most creative passwords for a museum. He ran up to a service elevator, flipping over the wall onto the floor, and shot a remote electrical charge in the power outlet, sending the elevator up. As the elevator approached a halt in front of a wall, he examined it with his mask's detective vision. Straightening up, from his previous crouching position and pulled out an explosive disc and placed it on the wall. Once again crouching, in the corner tis time, it detonated and he jumped out of the elevator and took off. His progress was halted shortly by a wall, which he collapsed using an explosive disc and continued down the following hall.

However, as he reached the end of the hall it became apparent that there was a wall of ice obstructing his progress. He blew the wall up in time for him and the Team to see a cop running across a sheet of ice, dodging blasts from what appeared to be Mr. Freeze's gun. The only problem was, that it was the Penguin that was wielding it "Hold still lad!" he cackled as he fired shots at the officer. The man almost made it across the ice sheet only to get frozen two-thirds of the way to Nightwing. As Nightwing started to rush down to help the poor man before he got hypothermia, his legs were pinned to the floor beneath him by one of the Penguin's better shots.

"Stay in my birds eye view, Batbrat!" he squawked. "You wouldn't believe the fight that the old Snowman put up. Still I got what I wanted," he reasoned, "and that's all that matters." He grinned, his selfishness disgusting the Team. Nightwing strained against his restrains of ice, but they held firm. The villain smirked at his discomfort. "When you're done here, feel free to come join me in the Iceberg Lounge so I can kick your arse again." chuckling, the small man began to walk away. "Oh, and enjoy the Copsicle." he threw over his shoulder as he left.

Once Nightwing was sure that he was gone, he pulled out a Batarang, agonizingly slowly, he chipped away at the ice entombing his legs. He could already barely feel his feet, which made him all the more sympathetic for the various officers he had noticed trapped in ice around the room. "Help me. Please." begged the most recently frozen one from the running position he was stuck in. Finally managing to free his feet, he lightly hopped down onto the ice sheet below him, taking careful notice to move slowly as it protested underneath his weight. "The ice looks unstable, I should move slowly, take my time." he mumbled half to himself, half to the Team. When he finally reached the officer he chipped away the ice much faster, now that he wasn't bending over and had practice.

Once the officer was free, Nightwing wrapped an arm around him and grappled over to where he had been frozen.

"T-T-Thank you." the officer stuttered shivering.

Nightwing nodded in acceptance and asked, "Are you from the thirteenth precinct? Where's the rest of your team?"

"There were two more guys in this room," the cop paused, shivering, "Penguin froze 'em up and went after me. I ran and well, I guess you saw what happened."

"I'll get them." he reassured the cop. "You wait here and warm up."stepping lightly across the ice, he spotted a raft above the water. Speaking aloud to the Team, he reminded them to; "Always observe your surroundings, tools could be hiding in plain sight." He lectured spotting a decorative raft hanging from the ceiling. In less than a minute he was pulling the raft over to one of the frozen men and was chipping him out.

As he began to move towards the final frozen police officer the one on the raft began to shiver. "S-S-o cold. Where d-did Penguin get t-that gun?" he stuttered. Nightwing continued to look ahead and narrowed his eyes behind the mask. "He stole it from Mr. Freeze. I'm getting it back." he promised.

"P-p-please, someone help me!" the final frozen officer yelled, panicked. He breathed an audible sigh of relief, when Nightwing chipped him out of his icy prison.

"Stay here and get warm." he ordered.

"N-no problem sir. There are more of us!" The Team was unable to decide whether the police officer's stuttering was from the cold or fear of Nightwing, who in the moment, uncannily resembled Batman.

"If they're alive, I'll find them." he responded, before entering a hall nearby.

The sound of thugs voices were audible from the end of the hall and as soon as he reached the end Nightwing subtlety grappled up onto yet another indoor gargoyle. "-you betcha Mr. Cobblepot. Freeze's suit is in the case. I'm looking at it right now." the leader reassured his employer through a walkie talkie.

"Good. Make sure it stays that way." the Londoner demanded, as Nightwing slowly began to knock out the thugs. "The Birdboy's on his way and the last I saw him, he didn't look happy."

"He's here!" a panicked thug yelled.

"Why are you waiting around, then? Find him!" the man screeched into his walkie talkie. Soon there were only three thugs left, standing back to back. "You three are the only people left between making me happy and very, very, very, sad." informed the Penguin. "And if you make me cry, I'll make you cry!" he screamed. Penguin's happiness, however, didn't stand a chance. Nightwing knocked two of them out at the same time and punched the other thug in the face before squeezing a pressure point to knock him out, before grappling to a balcony where hostage cops were all crouched.

"I saw you clear the room man, nice work!" said one enthusiastically. "The name's Tom, Tom Miller." he supplied, clearly excited.

"You're part of Gordon's strike team, I saw your file." Nightwing remarked.

"You have?" the officer said, obviously surprised. "I mean, yes sir. Cobblepot's set up a fortress in here. Someone ratted us out. Me and the boys got dragged down here and beaten the crap out of." he finished.

"There are two of you still unaccounted for. Do you know where they'd be?"

"Have you tried the Iceberg lounge? Cobblepot liked to drag us down there and beat the crap out of us some more." The cop informed him. Nightwing nodded before grappling away. Just barely audible to the Team, he whispered, "As they say, out of the frying pan and into the fire."


	8. Sub-zero

Nightwing was getting annoyed. Very annoyed. This was the third group of thugs he had to dispatch in ten minutes. "There was no sign of Freeze, just his suit. He can't survive without it. I've got to find him before it's too late. I'm wasting time looking for him. Robin, can you try to locate him through thermal imagery. His internal body temperature should be higher than normal, but still unnaturally low for an average human."

"I'm searching now, stand by." the youngest bat replied. The computer screen he was facing suddenly emitted a low ding, providing a hit. "It looks like he's to the north of the Iceberg Lounge. There is a blip-." he was cut off by Batgirl.

"I'm getting a communication that the two GCPD officers are in the iceberg lounge." she interrupted.

"Patch me through." Nightwing ordered, running through the doorway and down the halls.

"Screw you." growled what sounded like an angry cop.

"Ah, that wasn't very nice." the Penguin sneered. Suddenly, the sound of something being sprayed and the officer's screams were audible. "You here that? That's the sound of a pig getting his hand frozen solid. And this..." There was a thunk, accompanied by a loud shattering noise, and increased screams. "...is the sound of that hand getting hit by a hammer!" the man cackled. "The whole bloody thing explodes!"

"Bastard!" growled Artemis angrily. Suddenly, the Londoner's voice was audible over both the communication line and the museum's loudspeakers.

"Hello Birdboy. Can you hear me? 'Course you can. I'm getting tired of waiting for you to show up. From now on, each minute that I wait, a cop loses a finger." Cackling was audible as the loudspeakers turned off. Nightwing slowed to a stop at the next corner.

"Robin, are there any other hostiles besides Cobblepot in the room?" Nightwing interrogated the younger vigilante.

"No, it's just the officers and him." muttered Robin.

Pulling out an electrically charged batarang, he tossed it at the felon, only for it to skid back across the floor, a few seconds later, frozen solid. While the bird themed criminal demanded to be fought, Nightwing spoke to the Team. "Penguin's position is too strong. Instead of trying to win a losing battle, I need to figure out a way to disable it. Maybe it's maker will have a solution." he stated, before running north of the Iceberg Lounge.

When he reached the partially frozen lake where the officers were, he pulled out a line launcher. Shooting it across the glittering expanse, he began to zip line above. Halfway across he disconnected the line and flipped, shoot in it another direction, before dropping and rolling over a handrail and onto the floor.

From where she was standing in the monitor womb, Cassie shrieked. "Does he have a death wish!" Several of the newer team members began to nod their heads in agreement.

"Who?" questioned a puzzled La'Gann as he entered the room. Ignoring the annoyed looks he received, he asked, "What's going on?" Cassue answered him.

"The warden of Arkham City captured Nightwing in his civilian identity and revealed he knew that he was Nightwing."

"Neptune's beard! What-" Nightwing chose to turn off his comm then.

Several minutes, eight thugs, a hacked door, Mr. Sickle, and a shattered wall later, he was staring at Victor Fries. The rogue was bare chested, and had medical tubing with a sluggish, cold liquid running through it. He was on his knees, weakly banging on the glass that held him. The temperature in the room was obviously of tropical nature, as the glass was fogged up with water droplets from the humidity. He crouched down, out of it's captive's line of sight, and began to hack the entrance of the room. As one of the glass walls began to rise, he could help but think that it was unfortunate that the younger members of the Team had to see this. The gasping, stumbling, villain didn't even have time to react as he was tackled and thrown on the ground.

Holding the blue skinned villain's head up he growled at him, "Joker's cure! Where is it?" "Forget the clown!" growled the villain with equal hostility. "I want Cobblepot! He has my suit, my weapons, he'll pay for what he's done to me."

"Penguin's mine." Nightwing argued back. "You need to focus on that cure, or innocent people will die."

"You do not understand," the older man narrowed his eyes. "I cannot complete my work without it. Everything depends on it. I must have it." To make sure the vigilante understood the gravity of the situation, he looked up at him for the first time during the conversation. "Everything." he stressed. Nightwing narrowed his eyes behind the mask, holding the ice villain's stare.

"Penguin's protecting himself with your ice gun. How do I get past it?"

"Do I look like a fool? Why would I tell you that?" Freeze growled. Nightwing sighed. He didn't want to bring her into this, but he had no choice.

"Because otherwise I won't help you get back your suit. Think about it Victor, you don't look well. With you gone, what might happen to Nora?" There was suddenly fire in Freeze's eyes which had previously held grim defeat.

"Leave her out of this, Nightwing!" Freeze spat the name out like a curse.

M'Gann was confused. She knew that Mr. Freeze was a Gotham villain with no regard for human life, yet he looked willing to die for this Nora person. By the expressions on the rest of the Team's faces most of the members were similarly confused. Turning to Batgirl, she asked her, "Who's Nora?" Pulling up a file, a Batgirl rattled off.

"Nora Fries is the wife of Victor Fries, alias Mr. Freezeand former ballerina. She suffers from a mortal case of Huntington's Chorea. She was put in cryostasis by Fries during the time he worked at Gothcorp so she would live long enough for him to find a cure for affliction. However, she was kidnapped by Fries's boss, Ferris Boyle. Freeze later attempted to kidnap him, which resulted in the accident that caused his body temperature to plummet, forcing him to become Mr. Freeze. While his intentions are good, he will do anything to help find a cure for Nora, including steal, vandalize property, and kill." Batgirl finished. Her lecture was ruined though by the sound of Freeze clawing at Nightwing while growling about 'kids stealing things that don't belong to them'. Frankly, most of the team was surprised to see this side of any of their villains, albeit one they didn't handle often. The group focused on the conversation between Nightwing and Mr. Freeze in time to hear the end.

"-There's a security override that I built into the suit." Freeze started his sentence confidently, but slowly spoke quieter and quieter. "To prevent anyone from using my weapons against me."

"It's been a pleasure, Victor. Keep thinking about that cure. I'll work on getting your suit back." The Team's leader grunted, before striding away. After a quick trip back across the ice and paste the iceberg lounge, Nightwing found himself staring at Freeze's suit. Glaring at the mech suit, as if it offended him, he wound up and punched through the glass, shattering it. Pulling out another vile of what appeared to be in the center of Freeze's chest, he handed it to a police officer. "When I leave, wait ten minutes before giving this to Freeze. He won't be dangerous." Then, he reached down and pulled out a computer chip that was barely the size of his pinkie.

"What are you going to do?" asked the officer. Nightwing slipped the chip into a port on his cryptographic sequencer and turned to the officer.

"I've got a bird to pluck."

Nightwing raced down the hall and rushed through the double doors to the Iceberg Lounge and dove behind the cover of a wall before the Penguin could hit him with another blast from the pilfered gun. "Come on out, Bird brain." the overweight Gothamite sneered, firing off to Nightwing's left. While the man's attention was drawn elsewhere, Nightwing crept within the chip's range of the ice gun. He took a deep breathe hoping that he hadn't read Freeze wrong and the man had just left him to die and pressed the button. Nothing happened. Suddenly, Cobblepot turned towards him, a smile spreading across his face, as he pulled the trigger, only for his gun to jam. "What? Fire! Damn you!" he demanded, looking down at the weapon. He looked back up just in time to get an uppercut to the face.

While the villain cradled his head, Batgirl berated Nightwing."That was impulsive and stupid and almost got you killed! What if the gun hadn't coincidentally jammed and you had been frozen? What would you have done, then?"

"I needed to get close enough to use the chip and I had a plan incase that happened." he lied. "I'm fine." he reassured her.

"I wouldn't say that, laddie." the Penguin growled. Nightwing mentally kicked himself. In the space of his conversation with Batgirl the villain had snuck off the island. "What do you-" he started, only for the floor to collapse beneath him. He struggled to move a heavy piece of rubble pinning him down from his chest as his head pounded. He began to thrash, yet the rubble only appeared to get stuck tighter. As his head whipped from side to side, he caught sight of a mound of muscle. Oh shit...


End file.
